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Local weightlifting center's funding under scrutiny

Funding for Anderson-Cohen training facility under scrutiny

Michael Cohen watches over Savannah State football players as they work out at Anderson-Cohen Weightlifting Center.

Photos by Richard Burkhart/Savannah Morning News Michael Cohen, right, works with Savannah State football players at Anderson-Cohen Weightlifting Center. The Chatham County budget for the upcoming fiscal year proposes to cut funding to the center.

Before Michael Cohen talks about the future of Anderson-Cohen Weightlifting Center, he wants to take you on a journey through the past.

Posted on cinder block walls at the entrance of the center are pictures and articles featuring Paul Anderson and Howard Cohen - Georgians, who were prominent members of the United States' weightlifting scene during the 1950s. Anderson won the gold medal as a heavyweight at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, Australia. Cohen captured the Junior National featherweight title in 1955.

"They were friends and they both shared a vision of a place training Olympic-caliber athletes," said Howard Cohen's son, Michael.

The vision became a reality here about 16 year ago. The community pitched in, agreeing on an additional 1-percent sales tax of which a portion led to the creation of the $400,000 Anderson-Cohen Weightlifting Center.

How special is the center for Michael Cohen? A small black-and-white photo shows the hulking Anderson with a small, skinny young boy standing proudly with his hero.

"That little boy is me," Michael Cohen said.

Proposed closing

Make no mistake, the recent talk of the weightlifting center's potential closing is personal to Cohen. He is the executive director of Team Savannah, which manages the facility. The Chatham County budget for the upcoming fiscal year proposes to cut the center's operating costs of about $200,000, forcing closure.

Nine county commissioners will vote for the proposed $622 million budget Friday.

"When the county manager talks about cutting a program, not reducing a program, but eliminating a program, it's almost offensive," Cohen said. "You're telling people they don't count, and I find that hard to believe."

There's a diverse group of users at the unassuming, 12,000-square-foot facility on Varnedoe Road, nestled across from the Memorial Stadium parking lot.

Cohen said there are about 150 facility users who vary from housewives to potential Olympic athletes. Another 200 users have special needs, including those recovering from stroke or amputation.

According to the county budget, the center brought in less than $12,000 from user fees. Eliminating the center would eliminate deficits created from contracts for operation and management, a special needs program and janitorial services.

Cohen sees a problem.

"You can't take a child with a mental or physical handicap to the YMCA and say let my child work out in the gym. What do you think they're going to say?" Cohen said. "How many times have you seen someone do a clean and jerk at 24 Hour Fitness? It's just not designed for it. Not even D1 is designed for it.

"This facility was designed for a very small (group) of individuals within the community to use. There are no other options. Now over the course of the life of the facility, that narrow band has been expanded dramatically to include a lot of things. (The facility) has evolved over the years."

"There are a lot of good gyms, but this one serves a special purpose to our citizens," said Liakakis, who noted emails and phone calls from the public in support of the weightlifting facility after the proposed budget was announced.

"From talking to some (commissioners), they want to keep it open. We'll see. Anything is possible, but I don't think (the county commissioners) are going to close the facility."

Serving community

Calvary star Dom DeMasi, who hopes to play baseball and football at Valdosta State University, worked out Wednesday under the watchful eye of Cohen at the Anderson-Cohen Center.

Dom's brother, Russell, prepared for football at Georgia Southern by taking advantage of the facility a few years earlier.

"My dad sent (Russell) there because he liked how the instructors worked people hard," Dom said. "I look up to (Cohen) a lot. He inspires you."

And the price is right too: only $20 a month.

DeMasi understands the bargain. Where else can you get an Olympian - Cohen made the U.S. team in 1980 but did not go to the Summer Games in Moscow because of a boycott - to set up a weightlifting program for you?

"Amazing, isn't it?" DeMasi said.

Special needs lifters get a doubly amazing price: $10 a month.

Originally, the center was built to house, Team Savannah, a budding weightlifting program started by Cohen in the early 90s.

Cohen said Team Savannah originally trained at Herty Elementary School.

The enthusiasm of the Summer Olympics in Atlanta in 1996 (Savannah received the Olympics sailing events that year) led to the movement for a portion of an additional sales tax to fund the weightlifting center.

Expansion was approved for the facility in 2006, again using a part of public sales tax funds to raise $500,000.

Savannah has benefited by seeing its residents gain international acclaim. As a member of Team Savannah, Cheryl Haworth earned a bronze medal in the 2000 Olympics. Other team members won spots on the national team, and Cohen remains optimistic about the future.

"People ask me how does small-town Savannah produce so many Olympians in a short amount of time? The answer is the Anderson-Cohen Center," Cohen said. "You're giving kids the opportunity, no one else has."

Cohen said Team Savannah members have worked as instructors at the facility since it was built in 1995 and the novice has always been welcomed to train next to the elite.

"This is just the kind of place Mr. Anderson and my father wanted," Cohen said. "Kids are less likely to go the wrong way when they're around people who are positive.